This book explores the world's most popular form of television drama - the soap opera. From Denver to Delhi, Moscow to Manchester, audiences eagerly await the next episode of "As the World Turns", "The Rich Also Weep" or "Eastenders". But the popularity of soap operas in Britain and the US pales in comparison to the role that they play in media cultures in other parts of the world. This book investigates both the cultural specificity of television soap operas and their reception in other cultures, covering soap production and soap watching in the US, Asia, Europe, Australia and Latin America. The contributors consider the nature of soap as a media text, the history of the serial narrative as a form, and the role of the soap opera in the development of feminist media criticism.